NBA using its array of foreign players to reach foreign fans

Diminutive Timberwolves point guard J.J. Barea reached the heights of the NBA with the help of an adjustable basketball hoop in the backyard of his childhood home in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

“We would bring the hoop down, so we could dunk when we were little,” recalled the 29-year-old, who is generously listed as 6 feet tall on the Wolves’ roster. “Then we would have to put it back to 10 feet. We had a good setup.”

The Puerto Rican player’s foundation for becoming an eight-year NBA veteran included playing since he was “in Pampers,” in leagues at age 5, against two older brothers and a friend in heated two-on-two games on that backyard hoop and then across the city in pickup games on concrete courts.

“We have a million leagues,” said Barea of a national pastime that is rivaled by baseball, not soccer. “In Puerto Rico, they do a good job of having competitive basketball year-round.”

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Barea’s background is a reason the NBA reached out to the Wolves to play in the NBA Global Games series against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night in Mexico City. The Timberwolves, with the recent addition of Luc Mbah a Moute of Cameroon, now have seven international players, second only to the Spurs’ 10.

Philippe Moggio, NBA vice president for Latin America, said the league considered the Hispanic heritage of Barea as well as teammate Ricky Rubio of Spain and the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili of Argentina.

“It’s a very important opportunity because of the Hispanic touch points with J.J. Barea being a player from Puerto Rico and a lot of recognition in Mexico given his performance,” Moggio said.

That recognition comes from Barea being the first Latin American player to record a triple double, as the Elias Sports Bureau said he did with the Wolves in March 2012, and notoriety from winning an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

After the title, Barea returned to Puerto Rico for parades before thousands in the capital of San Juan and Mayaguez, his coastal hometown on the western side of the Caribbean country. In the San Juan fiesta, an Associated Press photo captured Barea atop a vehicle wearing a T-shirt reading “World Champs” while waving the red, white and blue of Puerto Rico’s flag.

“When I go back to Puerto Rico, it’s crazy,” Barea said.

Going global

The NBA has a record 92 international players this season, up from 21 when the “Dream Team” won gold at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The league will showcase the current batch of players from 39 countries in two regular-season games abroad, including one in London in January between Atlanta and Brooklyn. This preseason’s international schedule had eight international stops, including in Brazil and the Philippines.

The NBA points to 450 million people playing basketball on competitive and grassroots levels across the world, according to FIBA, and says 50 percent of visitors to NBA.com are from outside North America.

“Every metric points to a lot of international attention and focus and to that point: opportunity,” Moggio said. “Hence our commitment to increase our fan base and to continue to bring our fans internationally closer to the game through these initiatives.”

The number of international players continued to grow in the 2013 NBA Draft with a record 12 selections in the first round, including Wolves center Gorgui Dieng of Senegal.

Lisa Kihl, associate professor for sports management at the University of Minnesota, said the NBA set a strategy decades ago for developing international players.

“The NBA is being very strategic about this,” Kihl said, “and this is the fruits of their labor that they’ve been working on for the last 10, 15, 20 years.”

For Barea and Dieng, a chance to play in the NBA started with playing college basketball in the U.S.

Barea left Puerto Rico to spend his senior year of high school in Miami and was able to get a scholarship at Northeastern University in Boston.

“That is what I wanted,” Barea said of his goal in leaving his native land.

Barea entered the NBA with the Mavericks in 2006, but he played sparingly and had an eight-game stint with the Fort Worth Flyers of the NBA’s D-League.

“When they gave me an opportunity, I was ready,” he said.

‘Be like Ricky’

To host the first NBA regular-season game south of the border since 1997, Mexico City needed a new state-of-the-art venue that was on par with home arenas in the U.S. The Arena Ciudad de Mexico, which seats close to 18,000, opened in February 2012, and is expected to be sold out before the 8:30 p.m. opening tip, Moggio said.

Beyond the game’s attendance, it’s the nearly 20 million people in the Mexico City metro area that the NBA is eyeing, with consideration on the more than 30 percent of NBA merchandise sales coming from outside the U.S., the league said.

“My belief is there is a saturation in the market,” Kihl said of the U.S. “So, the NBA … is looking to expand that market base, ultimately to increase revenue and find another revenue stream.”

Having players that speak the native language helps make the marketing personal, Kihl said. On Tuesday, Spanish speakers Barea and Rubio were surrounded by dozens of Mexican media in the arena.

And instead of emulating Michael Jordan, like in the famous Gatorade commercial, Rubio can make it more relatable, Kihl said.

“They can share that story with the kids that you could be me,” Kihl said. “You could ‘Be Like Mike,’ but now it’s ‘Be Like Ricky.’ “